Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: Mama

Friday, January 18, 2013

Mama - Review

MAMA
(2013 - January 18)
Horror
1 hr. 40 min.

Rated: PG-13 Violence and terror, some disturbing images and thematic elements Read more
Grade: B

Director: Andrés Muschietti
Writers: Neil Cross, Andrés Muschietti and Barbara Muschietti
Stars: Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Megan Charpentier | See full cast and crew

On the day that their parents die, sisters Lilly and Victoria vanish in the woods, prompting a frantic search by their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain). Five years later, miraculously, the girls are found alive in a decaying cabin, and Lucas and Annabel welcome them into their home. But as Annabel tries to reintroduce the children to a normal life, she finds that someone -- or something -- still wants to tuck them in at night.

Right away knowing that Guillermo del Toro (executive producer) is involved with this film tells you that Mama is not going to be your typical slimy monster or 'dead teenager' horror film...and that's a good thing.

Mama is an unsettling story that presents both the good and bad in parents and parental figures. It is a truly creepy well crafted film, at least initially, it's when director, Andrés Muschietti (making his feature film debut), abandons the concepts of the film that are so very intriguing and chilling that it begins to lose the suspense and creepy factor and eventually runs out of gas trudging along to a somewhat predictable supernatural end. All in all, however, the superbly crafted first two thirds of the film does lift Mama to a level above the average horror/supernatural film.

A distraught father, Jeffrey (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) who has presumably killed his estranged wife, flees with his two young daughters. Their car slides off an icy mountain road, all three survive the accident. The dad gathers up the girls and they continue on foot until they discover a long abandoned cabin in the woods. The grieving father is about to end all of their lives when a black-clad apparition swoops down and carries him away. The girl's uncle Luke (also played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) having never given up on finding his brother and the girls, five years later, just as his money has run out, finds the girls who have been surviving as grimy, creepy, feral little creatures.

The girls are turned over to the care of the state. With the help of the state assigned, self-serving psychiatrist, Dr. Dreyfuss (Daniel Kash), uncle Luke and his punk rocker girlfriend, Anabel (Jessica Chastain / Zero Dark Thirty) gain custody of the girls and they are brought to their new home, a “case study” suburban house, where the shady supervising psychiatrist retains access to further study the girls.

The older of the girls,Victoria (Megan Charpentier), vaguely remembers her uncle, through therapy she has regained the ability to speak and is beginning to readjust to civilization, while her little sister Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse) remains a feral, gnashing little creature, shoving fists of food into her mouth with her hands and skittering across rooms on all fours like some king of half dog half crab. What’s more, the girls didn’t spend those five years in the woods alone. Something was there with them. Victoria hints to Dr. Dreyfuss and to Luke and Annabel that “Mama” cared for them during their time at the cabin. Lilly is still very much attached to “Mama” and it is soon apparent that she has followed them to their new home.

There is an extraordinary scene where the girls’ bedroom is half in the frame and a hallway in the other half; Lilly, the younger girl is in the bedroom giggling and playing a friendly game of tug of war with a blanket with… some one, and in the hallway we see Victoria making it very clear that it’s not her sister with whom Lilly is playing. It’s both funny and genuinely chilling: a ghosts or demons playing a friendly game with a little girl who clearly loves, wants and needs them. Now that's not supposed to happen. There's something about this entity that indicates that it isn’t some sort of vengeful, killer spirit but rather a caring, nurturing “Mama”. It's unsettling in a way uncommon for this type of movie, that the ghoul, the focus of the film is in fact essentially a benign, loving, misunderstood visitor from the other side. This is the theme Mama employs in its riveting opening scenes. Mr. Muschietti masterfully uses inference, off-screen space, and one character’s impaired point of view to suggest a frightening otherworldly specter whose motivations are uncertain but quite possibly benevolent.

Almost immediately the film abandons this pretext, making it obvious that "Mama" doesn’t have good intentions, definitely not for the girls’ guardians or the doctor, and perhaps not even for the girls. The film then transforms to a new theme, briefly, where the girls’ slowly and sadly realize that their "Mama" is actually sinister and terrifying. A lot of good horror involves characters who discover that there is something evil and malevolent inculcated in the world they thought they knew, and here we see the threatening transformation of the young girl’s, up until now, beloved provider and guardian.

Unfortunately, the good work in the majority of the film is squandered when the 'less is more' approach is dropped and the filmmakers seriously spin out of control with a protracted finale that overexposes the titular monster (Javier Botet).